by CBS/AP
Published: Thu, August 06, 2009 - 2:23 pm CST
In a history-making vote, the Senate has confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice. The vote was 68 to 31, with nine Republicans voting in favor of President Obama's first Supreme Court nomination. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who is suffering from brain cancer, was not present.
All 57 Democrats present voted for the nomination, along with the Senate's two independents.
The nine Republican senators who voted for Sotomayor were: Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Sen. Christopher Bond (Mo.), Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.), Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.), Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), and Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio).
"She ends up with more votes than Samuel Alito and fewer votes than John Roberts and in the end no one is going to remember the margins," said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "She'll now prepare to settle in to the court, and to a new city, and I'm sure she's already had a peek at some of the briefs in cases she'll begin to help decide when the new term begins in a few weeks."
After the vote, Mr. Obama said he was "pleased and deeply gratified."
"Like so many other aspects of this nation, I'm filled with pride in this achievement and great confidence that Judge Sotomayor will make an outstanding Supreme Court justice," he said. "This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it's a wonderful day for America."
The president also thanked the Senate Judiciary Committee for giving Sotomayor "a thorough and civil hearing."
On his way out following his prepared statement, CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller asked whether he was happy with 68 votes for Sotomayor.
"I'm very happy," Mr. Obama said.
Sotomayor is a 55-year-old appeals court judge of Puerto Rican descent who was raised in a New York City housing project, educated in the Ivy League and served 17 years on the federal bench. She now becomes the 111th Supreme Court justice and just the third woman to serve.
Senators took the rare step of assembling at their desks on the Senate floor for the historic occasion, rising from their seats to cast their votes. The chamber's newest senator, Democrat Al Franken of Minnesota, was in the chair running the proceedings.
Sotomayor was confirmed despite staunch opposition from Republicans who call her ill-suited for the bench. But prior to the vote, Sotomayor did pick up a few more GOP votes even as nearly three-quarters of the Senate's 40 Republicans said they would vote "no" and contended she would bring liberal bias and personal sympathies to her decisions. With all Democrats expected to back her, her confirmation was never in much doubt.
Democrats, praising her as a well-qualified judge and a mainstream moderate, are warning Republicans that they risk a backlash from Hispanic voters - a growing part of the electorate - for opposing her. But Republicans bristle at the suggestion, noting that Democrats used extraordinary measures several years ago to block the confirmation of GOP-nominated Miguel Estrada, a Honduran-born attorney, to the federal bench.
GOP senators say their opposition to Sotomayor is based on her speeches and record, pointing to a few rulings in which they argue she showed disregard for gun rights, property rights and job discrimination claims by white employees. They also cite comments she's made about the role that a judge's background and perspective can play, especially a 2001 speech in which she said she hoped a "wise Latina" would usually make better decisions than a white man.
Republicans have been particularly critical of Sotomayor's position on the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. She was part of a panel that ruled this year that the amendment doesn't limit state actions - only federal ones - in keeping with previous Supreme Court precedent. But gun rights supporters said her court shouldn't have called the issue "settled law," and they criticized her for refusing during her confirmation hearings to go beyond what the high court has said and declare that the Second Amendment applies to the states.
The National Rifle Association is strongly opposing her and has threatened to downgrade any senator who votes to confirm Sotomayor in its closely watched candidate ratings. The warning has made little impact on Democrats, many of whom have rallied behind the judge despite their perfect or near-perfect ratings from the NRA, but it may have influenced some Republicans who were initially considered possible supporters but have since announced their opposition, citing gun rights as a key reason.
Just a handful of Republicans are backing Sotomayor, and most of them say that while they disagree with some of her views and rulings, they believe she's well-qualified. Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri said partisanship has no place in debates over judges.
"There's been no significant finding against her, there's been no public uprising against her," Bond said. "I will support her, I'll be proud for her, the community she represents and the American dream she shows is possible."
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., also said he'd vote for her, adding that politicizing the confirmation process - as he argued Democrats did when they blocked GOP nominees in the past - "undermines the public's views of our courts and the integrity of our judicial system."
Mr. Obama named Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter, a liberal named by a Republican president.
"She's not likely to have a huge impact on the Court's ideological makeup because in some ways she's the same sort of moderate liberal that her predecessor, David Souter was. And you can even argue that she is likely to be more conservative than he was in certain kinds of cases, like business or law enforcement cases," CBS' Legal Analyst Cohen said. "The real test for the White House and the Congress will come when the president of one party has to overcome a Senate controlled by members of the other party. That didn't happen here, it didn't happen with Justices Alito or Roberts, either, and if it does happen down the road we will the sort of political bloodbath we haven't seen since the Bork and Thomas confirmations."
Sotomayor Takes Her Place at Supreme Court
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